A work by Shambhavi at CIMA Gallery’s Summer Show 2008

A petrol dispenser? A rifle? Part of a derrick? A man holds it in his grip in this long strip of a colour photograph 76.2 cm in height and 254 cm wide, more than half of whose width is white, and which conceals more than it reveals. Even more puzzling, this photographic image with undercurrents of violence is by Rameshwar Broota, better known for his dark and brooding paintings. It is an arresting image but its slickness is not something one associates with this artist, who has been making waves in international sale rooms.

Kingshuk Sarkar has used the same medium in CIMA Gallery’s Summer Show 2008 opening on Friday evening. He has created three large panels, the middle one showing a girl covering her eyes, sandwiched between double images of chopped wood on both sides of the work. It has potential but its realisation could have been stronger.

Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar, Shakila and Shambhavi have created striking images. Rashmi’s paintings are colour saturated. A red face with a large mouth and liquid eyes stares at viewers in one work. A woman in a shroud lies in a desert, the blood red sky lowering over cacti. It has the mood and colours of an elegy.

Colours play a vital role in Shakila’s collage. The larger work depicts a child being rescued from flames and in the second, she makes brilliant use of grids and yellow and red.

Four sheets of paper coloured brick red together form a larger quadrangle. The four red rectangles are arranged on a white background in this work by Shambhavi. They are separated by white strips — the exposed background — to create a work that radiates warmth.

Films of colour seem to have deposited on Madhuri Kathe’s fragile work.

Sanjeev Sonpimpare’s painting of a man holding up a ceiling and a booted foot upside down looks gimmicky by comparison.

Santosh More’s three conjoined cottages are proof enough of the virtues of simplicity and clarity of thought.

One can say the same of Prakash Ghadge’s fine pen-and-ink drawing of a clump of trees on an island and its reflection in the placid waters. Ghadge is from Maharashtra, and the detailed depiction of foliage and the illusion of a mirror image that he creates are evidence enough of his enormous skills.

Sanjay Kashinath Sable is also from the same state and his image of a cow standing on its udders verges on the comical.

Oriental motifs are used liberally in Ramendra Nath Kastha’s graphic work.